Pure Reason Revolution have announced their seventh studio album, Terrifying Angels, along with a lead single and music video, “Spin Like Fire.” The album is due September 25 via InsideOut Music (Century Media Records) and marks the band’s fourth full-length since reforming in 2019.
Vocalist and guitarist Jon Courtney said of the album’s central concept: “My initial thought of an angel was the cute kind of cherub, but traditionally angels aren’t cute or comforting figures. They’re often overwhelming, terrifying beings.”
On the shift in sonic approach from the band’s previous record, Courtney added: “The last record was more chill, so it just felt terribly natural to do something grittier, heavier and more aggressive.” Terrifying Angels is described as dark and potent, built around savage riffs, ominous soundscapes and grungy layering, all anchored by the band’s signature transcendent harmonies.
The core trio of Courtney, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Annicke Shireen, and drummer Ravi Kesavaram are joined by a range of collaborators on the album. Founding member Greg Jong co-wrote the title track and “Rumination Ruin” with Courtney during a jam session in Portland, Oregon. Alt-rock veteran Paul Mullen — known for fronting Yourcodenameis: Milo and Losers — co-wrote both “Haywire Heart” and the album’s closing 14-minute epic “Hold Your Wrath.” A further track, “Below Radiance,” was developed from a composition by Courtney’s protégé Kenny Fitzgerald. Bass contributions come from Mariusz Duda of Lunatic Soul and Kristoffer Gildenlöw (formerly of Pain of Salvation). Mixing duties are once again handled by Bruce Soord of The Pineapple Thief.
Pure Reason Revolution will tour the UK in November 2026 in support of the album, with Kyros as special guests. Dates:
Nov. 1 — Bristol, UK — Thekla
Nov. 2 — Nottingham, UK — Rescue Rooms
Nov. 3 — Glasgow, UK — Slay
Nov. 4 — Bilston, UK — The Robin
Nov. 5 — Liverpool, UK — O2 Academy 2
Nov. 6 — London, UK — 229
The band also have previously announced appearances at Prog Storm Festival in Montreal, Canada on Aug. 23, followed by a run of Polish dates in December: Dec. 18 in Poznań (2Progi), Dec. 19 in Warsaw (Voodoo Club) and Dec. 20 in Kraków (Hyde Park).
Pure Reason Revolution — originally formed in London in 2003 — released three albums between 2006 and 2010 before disbanding in 2011. The band reformed in 2019 and has since released Eupnea (2020), Above Cirrus (2021) and Coming up to Consciousness (2024), all on InsideOut Music.
Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier will miss the band’s upcoming U.S. festival appearances due to an unspecified immigration issue that has prevented him from traveling to the United States in time. He will be temporarily replaced by Luigi Paraventi of Paleface Swiss.
Gojira issued the following statement via social media: “Hey everyone! Important update regarding our festival performances.
“Mario is dealing with an immigration issue that has made it impossible for him to travel to the US in time for our shows. Mario is heartbroken not to be here with us and has fought hard every step of the way to find a solution.
“We’re so grateful for the incredible Luigi Paraventi of Paleface Swiss, who has stepped in on short notice. Player 2 has entered the game — RESPECT. We can’t wait to see you all out there!!”
Affected shows:
July 16 — Cadott, WI — Rock Fest
July 17 — Grand Rapids, MI — Upheaval
July 18 — Mansfield, OH — Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival
In February 2025, Gojira was honored with a Grammy in the “Best Metal Performance” category at the 67th annual Grammy Awards for “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça Ira!),” a version of the French Revolution-era standard the band performed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony alongside opera singer Marina Viotti. Gojira made history as the first metal band to ever perform at the Olympic Games.
Gojira’s latest album, Fortitude, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Albums chart in May 2021 and at No. 12 on the Billboard 200. The album was recorded and produced by Joseph Duplantier at Silver Cord Studio in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine). In 2016, Metal Hammer called Gojira “metal’s most important band.”
In February this year, Big Big Train, the award-winning, international progressive rock band, released their 16th studio album Woodcut. The landmark release for the international group marked their first-ever full-length narrative concept album, exploring creativity, sacrifice and the thin line between inspiration and madness.
Now, the band is pleased to share a new Digital Deluxe Edition of Woodcut, complete with demos of each track from the album, as well as two acoustic tracks. The Digital Deluxe Edition is out on the 7th August and is available for pre-order here.
Lead vocalist Alberto Bravin says: “The demos featured on the digital deluxe version of Woodcut are the final ones that I put together shortly before we went into Sweetwater Studios in Fort Wayne in the USA in April 2025. While we had the overall shape and flow of the album largely worked out before we started recording, there were some significant musical developments at Sweetwater. File sharing has a role to play, but creatively nothing can rival the seven of us all playing in the same room together, interacting and sparking off each other with arrangement and performance ideas.”
Bassist Gregory Spawton adds: “With this digital release, we wanted also to take the opportunity to make live acoustic versions of a couple of key Woodcut songs available. Back in February this year, Alberto, our violinist Clare Lindley and I performed short two-acoustic-in-store sets in the UK to mark the release of Woodcut. We really enjoyed doing so and might consider more acoustic performances at some point down the line.”
Watch the video for “Chimaera” live below.
Big Big Train recently announced a warm-up show to take place on Thursday 24th September 2026 at Thornden Hall in Eastleigh, UK to kick off The Woodcut & Other Stories tour.
This will be the first of 19 shows across the UK and Europe this autumn where the band will play this year’s acclaimed Woodcut album in full as well as over an hour of other material from their extensive back catalogue.
In This Moment have announced their ninth studio album, Witch, and released its lead single and music video, “Crawl.” Due August 28, the album marks the band’s debut on Better Noise Music and arrives on the heels of prior single “Sleeping With The Enemy,” which drew more than one million streams and earned favorable notices from Rock Sound and Revolver.
Maria Brink said of “Crawl”: ““Crawl” is a reckoning — a reflection that those who dominate and cause pain will ultimately reap what they sow. As above, so below. The fall is inevitable. Bearing witness to the harm they inflict, the song declares that those who once stood tall will be brought to their knees.”
Co-founder and lead guitarist Chris Howorth added: ““Crawl” is a visceral track that delivers the undeniable observation of powerful entities dominating and abusing the weaker and compromised masses — something that continues to repeat itself throughout human history. The song empowers and, at its core, is about standing up and fighting back.”
On the album as a whole, Brink said: “Witch is my declaration of inner transformation. It’s about embracing the duality within — taking pain, persecution, and struggle — and alchemizing them into strength and power. The album reflects both ancient trials and my own journey — where being a ‘witch’ means being a creator, connected to the universe, manifesting my own reality.”
Witch features guest appearances from Dayseeker on “I Want To Believe,” Kim Dracula on “Heretic,” and Kat Von D on a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall.” The 11-track set:
In This Moment formed in Los Angeles in 2005. The band — Brink, Howorth, bassist Travis Johnson, guitarist Randy Weitzel and drummer Kent Diimmel — has amassed more than two billion global streams, earned a Grammy nomination in 2020 for “Best Metal Performance” (for “The In-Between” from Mother), and registered gold-selling certification for their 2012 album Blood. Their most recent album, Godmode, was released in 2023 via BMG and featured collaborations with Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills as well as a cover of Björk’s “Army Of Me.”
Nicko McBrain has shared his personal ranking of all 17 Iron Maiden studio albums, placing 2006’s A Matter of Life and Death at the top and the band’s 1980 self-titled debut at the bottom. The retired drummer revealed the rankings during a June 2026 “An Evening With CapnHarris” event held at his own Rock n Roll Ribs restaurant in Coconut Creek, Florida, as reported by Loudwire.
Placing last on McBrain’s list was Iron Maiden’s eponymous 1980 debut — one of three albums recorded with drummer Clive Burr before McBrain joined the band in 1982. “I’ll tell you what, the production on that wasn’t the greatest, but nevertheless, still a good album,” McBrain said. The other two pre-McBrain records — Killers and The Number of the Beast, also featuring Burr — fared only slightly better, landing at Nos. 13 and 12, respectively. Notably, that puts the widely celebrated The Number of the Beast, home to “Run to the Hills” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” outside McBrain’s top ten.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, A Matter of Life and Death — the band’s progressive, lyrically dense 2006 record — claimed the No. 1 spot. “That’s definitely my favorite album,” McBrain said, citing “Brighter Than a Thousand Suns” and “Lord of Light” as standout tracks. His first album with the band, Piece of Mind (1983), came in at No. 2, while 2021’s Senjutsu — among the band’s most ambitious and best-received late-career entries — ranked third.
Full ranking, from worst to best:
17. Iron Maiden (1980)
16. Virtual XI (1998)
15. No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
14. The X Factor (1995)
13. Killers (1981)
12. The Number of the Beast (1982)
11. The Final Frontier (2010)
10. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
9. Fear of the Dark (1992)
8. Somewhere in Time (1986)
7. Brave New World (2000)
6. Dance of Death (2003)
5. The Book of Souls (2015)
4. Powerslave (1984)
3. Senjutsu (2021)
2. Piece of Mind (1983)
1. A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
McBrain, who drummed with Iron Maiden from 1982 until he retired from touring in 2024, is set to release his autobiography, Hello Boys and Girls!, in October 2026. Speaking about the book, McBrain said: “It’s been a real honor to write my very own autobiography and have the chance to walk down memory lane…” A European book tour in support of the autobiography runs Oct. 26 through Dec. 3.
Iron Maiden are scheduled to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026. The band’s most recent album, Senjutsu, was released in September 2021 via Parlophone Records and BMG and debuted at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart as well as charts in nine other countries, including Germany, France, Finland and Japan.
Slipknot guitarist Jim Root has opened up about the band’s new music, its uncategorizable direction, and the organic recording process currently underway with producer Matt Wallace, in a new interview with Ben Giese of theRide Bynd podcast. The conversation touched on the resurgence of nu metal — the genre Slipknot was famously lumped into at the start of their career — and what separates the band’s forthcoming material from anything they’ve done before.
On the nu metal revival, Root said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “That happens, man. That’s like fashion, that’s like movies. Everything has a cycle. Things come in and out of cycle… Which is wild, ‘cause the new sh*t we’re writing does not sound like that at all. We’re not digressing or de-evolving into that sort of a… There’s elements of it. I mean, we write how we write, so we’re always gonna have a little bit of a vibe. But you’re not gonna hear — for lack of a better term — a nu metal record out of us, if that makes any sense.”
“I don’t know that we’ve ever been nu metal,” Root continued. “I think we just came out at a time when nu metal was happening, so that’s where we got lumped. ‘Cause when the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal happened, they lumped us into that, when I would do guitar interviews with magazines. And I’m, like, ‘Wait a minute. I thought we were nu metal.’ But now we’re doing interviews with Lamb of God and bands like that, and I’m just, like, ‘Okay, whatever.’”
Root added: “To me, I think we’re just Slipknot. We’re just Slipknot music. I don’t think there is a box [you can put us in]. We have so many elements. ‘Cause everybody in the band comes from different musical backgrounds. There are those bands that go out and they kind of create their own thing, where you can hear, like, maybe an influence here and there. Like when you hear U2, there’s not really any other band that sounds like U2 unless they’re emulating U2’s early career. But they evolved into something that, that’s their own thing.
“I hope — and I think — that that is what Slipknot is. Even talking about it with the producer we’re working with — we’re working with Matt Wallace right now to write this stuff — and there’s times where we just kind of sit back and we’re listening to what I just worked on and I’m just, like, ‘Wow, this is wild. This sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before, yet there’s a familiarity to it that feels like I’ve been listening to it my whole life.’ And it’s so organic. It’s just Slipknot music.”
Asked to describe the new Slipknot material, Root said: “It’s Slipknot, so we’re gonna have a sound, but at the same time, having [new Slipknot drummer] Eloy [Casagrande] in the band… Man, it’s such an honor to be able to jam with that guy, and the way we’re approaching this… The way we’re approaching this is similar to how it was being approached in the beginning — like a garage-band vibe. Now we’re going to a church, we’re setting up Eloy, I’m setting up a guitar rig, and we’re just jamming for, like, two hours.
“And then out of those two hours, Clown [percussionist Michael Shawn Crahan] will be in the room with headphones on, and he might start jamming with us, or he might just be listening. And he’ll throw his arm up, or he’ll hit the light — that’s a cue to our producer, like, ‘That’s a part.’ In his mind, he’s thinking, ‘That’s a chorus. That’s an intro. That’s a verse line. That’s a bridge.’ But then he’ll look at us and he’ll be, like, ‘Stick with that,’ or ‘That was cool. Move on.’ And so what we’ve been able to do is take these jams, then Clown will sit with me and Matt and just start arranging the song out of it all. And it’s so organic and so honest and so open to interpretation.”
Root said of the new music’s direction: “I couldn’t tell you what the direction of this next record is gonna be. I know I’m writing some of the fastest grind-picking riffs, some of the most melodic, heavy, doomy kind of riffs. A lot of really pretty, just beautiful, clean interludes and things like that that are finding their way into these songs. A lot of sort of just experimental — I don’t wanna say Pink Floyd, but maybe somewhere in that wheelhouse.”
Root elaborated on why the current writing method is the most honest Slipknot has ever worked: “When I’m sitting in front of a computer and I’m trying to write a song, it’s contrived. I know that’s what I’m there to do. When we do a jam, we don’t know what’s gonna happen. We could start a jam that goes so cool, we just get a song top to bottom without even thinking about it.
“What it’s doing is, it’s leaving a band of nine guys so free and so open that no matter what a riff is or what a part is… If Mick [Thomson, Slipknot guitarist] hasn’t taken part in one of the jams that we’ve done, he can come in, hear an arrangement, and be, like, ‘I know what I can do with this, and I’m not gonna do what you’re doing — I’m gonna do what I wanna do.’ And they can live together.
“It’s just literally letting it evolve in a very organic, natural way, as it should. And that’s hard to do when you’re not a singer-songwriter. Singer-songwriters can do that all day long, ‘cause everything they’re writing is coming out of themselves.”
On where the band currently stands in the process, Root said: “We have so, so, so, so much material — probably at least 50, like, arrangements. I’m not saying they’re all full songs, and they all need work. We’re trying to leapfrog — go sort of back to the We Are Not Your Kind process where [you] start working on something, getting it to a level, shelving it, working on something else, coming back to it, going, ‘Okay, now let’s take this to another level.’ Sort of like making a movie. A lot of directors say they don’t finish making a movie; they just abandon the project.”
More than two years ago, Slipknot revealed that a new song, “Long May You Die,” had been recorded during early sessions with Casagrande. Slipknot’s most recent album, The End, So Far, arrived in August 2022 and was the band’s last full-length before the departures of keyboardist Craig Jones — who left in June 2023 — and drummer Jay Weinberg, who was subsequently replaced by Casagrande.
Last fall, Slipknot sold its music catalog — including publishing and recording masters royalties from the band’s archival catalog — to HarbourView Equity Partners. The deal did not extend to future releases. Since their 1999 debut, Slipknot has earned a Grammy Award, logged billions of global streams, and placed six albums in the Billboard 200 Top 10, including three consecutive No. 1s from 2008’s All Hope Is Gone through 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind. The End, So Far debuted at No. 1 in the U.K., Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Mexico.
British extreme metal veterans Cradle of Filth have announced the second leg of their “Majestic In Death” North American tour. The “Majestic In Death II” trek runs Sept. 29 through Oct. 28, with support from Moonspell, Worm and Black Satellite throughout. The tour will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band’s landmark 1996 album Dusk… And Her Embrace, with select tracks from that record woven into the set each night.
Cradle of Filth announced the tour on social media, writing: “More filth North America? We heard you! The ‘Majestic In Death’ tour — with selective tracks from ‘Dusk… And Her Embrace’ to celebrate the 30th anniversary — continues with Part II coming your way this fall!”
Presales begin Thursday, July 16 at 10 a.m. local time, with the general on-sale following Friday, July 18 at 10 a.m. local time.
Cradle of Filth “Majestic In Death II” tour dates with Moonspell, Worm and Black Satellite:
Sept. 29 — San Diego, CA — The Observatory North Park
Sept. 30 — Phoenix, AZ — The Van Buren
Oct. 2 — Sacramento, CA — Aftershock Festival
Oct. 3 — Portland, OR — Hawthorne Theatre
Oct. 4 — Seattle, WA — Substation
Oct. 6 — Vancouver, BC — Vogue Theatre
Oct. 7 — Spokane, WA — Knitting Factory
Oct. 8 — Boise, ID — Knitting Factory
Oct. 9 — Butte, MT — Covellite Theatre
Oct. 11 — Des Moines, IA — Val Air Ballroom
Oct. 12 — Davenport, IA — Capitol Theatre
Oct. 14 — Toronto, ON — The Opera House
Oct. 15 — Montreal, QC — Beanfield Theatre
Oct. 16 — Norwalk, CT — District Music Hall
Oct. 17 — Sayreville, NJ — Starland Ballroom
Oct. 19 — Baltimore, MD — Baltimore Soundstage
Oct. 20 — Boston, MA — Big Night Live
Oct. 21 — Wilmington, DE — The Queen
Oct. 22 — Brooklyn, NY — Warsaw
Oct. 24 — Allentown, PA — Archer Music Hall
Oct. 25 — Cleveland, OH — House of Blues
Oct. 26 — Cincinnati, OH — Bogart’s
Oct. 28 — Colorado Springs, CO — Sunshine Studios Live
Cradle of Filth’s fourteenth studio album, The Screaming Of The Valkyries, was released in March 2025 via Napalm Records. The album was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, England.
The tour follows a difficult period for the band, during which guitarist Marek “Ashok” Šmerda and keyboardist Zoe Marie Federoff quit Cradle of Filth in August 2025, alleging poor pay and what they described as “psychopathic” contracts. The pair subsequently filed a lawsuit against vocalist Dani Filth and the band’s management.
Speaking to Hot Metal magazine about the litigation and the band’s current momentum, Dani said: “We just ignored it. We actually, as people, as a band, as me, had done absolutely zero wrong. It was blown out of proportion.
“We’ve done an American tour, we’ve done summer festivals, we’re firing on all cylinders. Cradle are back. It never went away. It’s a shame, really, that this sort of thing happens. But life throws curveballs all the time. People say, ‘Yeah, you’ve got a new lineup.’ Well, do you want a f***ing show or not? Bands evolve. It’s just a case of mutate and survive.”
In 2023, Cradle of Filth released their first live album in over 20 years, Trouble And Their Double Lives, via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded between 2014 and 2019 at performances across the USA, Europe and Australia during the band’s Cryptoriana world tour and surrounding dates.
Bury Tomorrow have kicked off a new phase of their career with the release of the new single “Sx” and the launch of their own independent label, Death Records.
After releasing four albums through Sony Music, the British metalcore outfit is now taking full control of its future. The creation of Death Records gives Bury Tomorrow complete authority over its music, creative direction and the way it connects with fans.
The new track, “Sx” — short for “Symptom” — focuses on the contradictions that shape everyday life. Rather than seeing people as simply good or bad, the song examines the balance between hope and darkness, certainty and uncertainty, acknowledging that everyone carries hidden struggles.
Discussing the single, Bury Tomorrow frontman Daniel Winter-Bates said: “‘Sx’ is the perfect way to introduce this new chapter. It’s about grappling with the good and the bad every day, realizing that none of us are entirely one thing or another. Life exists in shades, not absolutes, and we all carry bones we bury deep.”
Produced by Carl Bown, whose previous work includes Sleep Token and Bullet For My Valentine, “Sx” expands Bury Tomorrow‘s sound while keeping the heaviness that has defined the band. Industrial, darkwave, and electronic influences play a larger role than before, giving the track a darker, more gothic atmosphere that lays the groundwork for what comes next.
The release also comes with the announcement of Bury Tomorrow‘s biggest headlining European tour so far. Scheduled for February 2027, the run includes a show at London’s Brixton Academy and is expected to see the band perform in front of more than 30,000 fans across Europe.
For Bury Tomorrow, “Sx” and the launch of Death Records represent more than a standalone release. Together, they mark the beginning of a fully independent era, with the band taking ownership of every aspect of its creative path while continuing to push its sound in new directions.
Ghost is bringing its latest concert film to cinemas with 2 Big To Rig, a feature built around the band’s sold-out performances at Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City. Filmed over two nights in September 2025 on 16mm, the movie captures the closing stretch of the Skeletour world tour before nearly 40,000 fans.
Unlike 2024’s Rite Here Rite Now, the new film puts the spotlight entirely on the live show. Alongside behind-the-scenes footage featuring the crew responsible for the band’s elaborate production, the movie also includes the only professionally filmed material from the phone-free tour, showcasing Papa V Perpetua and the Nameless Ghouls on stage throughout the Mexico City performances.
The title 2 Big To Rig reflects the band’s decision to wrap up the Skeletour in February 2026 after completing 70 shows across North America, Europe, and Mexico. The project was also created to give fans in regions the tour couldn’t reach a chance to experience the production, while also preserving the performances for concertgoers affected when the first of three planned Mexico City dates was canceled due to illness, reducing the run to two shows.
Presented in IMAX where available, the film covers material from all six Ghost studio albums, including tracks from Skeletá, along with fan favorites such as “Mary On A Cross”, “Kiss The Go-Goat” and “The Future Is A Foreign Land”.
Kymberli Frueh, EVP content acquisitions and programming at Trafalgar Releasing, commented: “Ghost captured the final nights of the legendary ‘Skeletour’s first leg on 16mm film in Mexico City — creating a nostalgic experience and a fitting farewell to an era for fans. We’re proud to share it with cinema audiences worldwide before Ghost takes a well-publicized break. It’s the perfect way to close such a significant chapter in the band’s history and give fans a chance to relive this moment together.”
2 Big To Rig will open in cinemas and IMAX worldwide on Wednesday, August 26, for a limited engagement. Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 23.
The film arrives after a major year for Ghost. In May 2025, Skeletá debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after earning 86,000 equivalent album units in its first week in the United States. According to Billboard, 77,000 of those were traditional album sales, with vinyl accounting for more than 44,000 copies. The release also became the first hard rock album to top the Billboard 200 since Ac/Dc‘s Power Up in 2020.
The promotional cycle for Skeletá introduced Papa V Perpetua through the video for “Satanized”, marking the beginning of the character’s role as the frontman for Ghost during the band’s 2025 and 2026 touring activities.
Anthrax has teamed up once again with Z2 to release NOT: The Illustrated Oral History Of Anthrax, a graphic album that tells the band’s four-decade story through illustrated firsthand accounts. Scheduled for release on March 16, 2027, the 108-page book combines personal memories from guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, vocalist JoeyBelladonna and guitarist Jon Donais, covering everything from the band’s earliest days to its lasting impact on heavy metal.
The book revisits key moments in Anthrax‘s history, including encounters with Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Kiss, friendships with a young Metallica and Pantera, their connection with fellow New Yorkers Beastie Boys and Public Enemy, and even the band’s memorable appearance on Married… With Children.
Artwork throughout the release comes from a wide range of comic book and underground artists, including Brian Bolland, J.G. Jones, Kevin McVeigh, Peter Bagge, Jay Howell, Danny Hellman, Sean Pryor, Erik Rodriguez, Steve Chanks, Patrick J. McQuade, Jim Mahfood, Sawblade, Brent Engstrom, John Bergin, Abimael Hernandez, Montos, Zach Gross, PatMoriarity, JayJay Jackson, Franco Aureliani, Steve Kurth, Luke McGarry, Gavin Schultz and Maan House.
The release also includes a limited-edition “Notman” 12-inch picture disc and will be offered in multiple formats. Fans can choose from a deluxe edition, a signed platinum edition featuring a slipcase, exclusive art prints and a foldout “Hair History” poster, as well as a standard retail version that will be available through major booksellers and independent comic shops.
For more than 40 years, Anthrax has remained one of thrash metal’s defining bands. Alongside Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, the New York outfit helped establish the Big Four while continually expanding its musical approach. The band’s collaboration with Public Enemy on “Bring The Noise” remains one of metal’s most influential crossover moments.
The announcement comes ahead of Anthrax‘s upcoming 12th studio album, Cursum Perficio, which is scheduled for release on September 18 through Megaforce Records. The album is the band’s first full-length since For All Kings, released in 2016.
Discussing the project, Charlie Benante said: “Being a band for 40-plus years, you have stories, you have experiences, and the way we’re telling the stories and experiences with Z2 is a great way for us and the fans to actually visualize these little stories in comic book form. I think once people see it, they’ll get a laugh out of it because these stories are true! Nothing is fabricated here. I think you’re gonna enjoy these stories, these great artists, and this new collaboration between Anthrax and Z2!”
Z2 president Josh Bernstein also commented on the renewed partnership: “When it comes to Anthrax, there’s never a question of if we’ll work together again — it’s when,” added Z2 president Josh Bernstein. “They’re one of the most innovative, fearless bands in heavy metal, and every collaboration pushes us to raise our game. The response to our first graphic novel proved that Anthrax fans want more than memorabilia — they want unforgettable art and experiences. This new graphic album delivers exactly that. It’s louder, bigger, and more ambitious than anything we’ve done together before, and we’re incredibly proud to unleash this metal thrashing madness together.”
Z2 has established itself as a major publisher of music-related graphic novels and collectibles, producing projects with artists including Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam, Primus, Pantera, Type O Negative, Mötley Crüe, Ronnie James Dio, King Diamond, Alter Bridge and many others.
NOT: The Illustrated Oral History Of Anthrax is available here.
